LAS CRUCES - A former state Department of Transportation engineer for Las Cruces is suing the agency, alleging he was terminated after he filed a 2008 complaint about what he said was pressure to improperly award business to connected companies.

Earl Franks alleges newly appointed Secretary of Transportation Alvin Dominguez defrauded taxpayers by pushing the department to award work for a decade to the companies of two former DOT employees, according to Albuquerque attorney Paul Melendres.

"This is a case of a state employee who stood up against corrupt practices at the DOT in order to save taxpayer money and ended up being fired in retaliation for his courage," Melendres wrote in a prepared statement.

Department of Transportation spokeswoman Bridget Spedalieri declined to comment on the case because it involves pending litigation.

Dominguez, a New Mexico State University graduate who joined NMDOT in 1995, allegedly pushed award work to Qualcon Inc., which is owned by former Deputy Cabinet Secretary for Transportation and Planning Ron Gaines, and Poly-Carb Corp., whose registered lobbyist is former NMDOT Secretary of Operations Benny Roybal.

Gaines testified in a 2005 deposition that, during a meeting with Franks and Dominguez, he asked for one of his bid prices to be lowered to make it look like his company's bid was lower than a competitor with the true low cost. Though it violated the New Mexico Procurement Code, Dominguez ordered Franks to follow through, an

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action NMDOT employees discovered in an agency e-mail Jan. 26, 2005.

"If Qualcon does the work and (the competitor) A.S. Horner, who actually would have been the low bidder if Qualcon had not lowered a unit price, sees the work being done, they could have recourse against (the) District for illegal contract manipulation resulting in loss of work and revenue to them," the e-mail stated.

Franks subsequently e-mailed his supervisors about his concerns about using the two more expensive companies, especially after the 2007 collapse of the Interstate 35 Mississippi River bridge in Minneapolis, in which he worried that money was being used to benefit Poly-Carb - not the safety of New Mexico bridges.

He was applauded for his "willingness to fight for what is right" in a subsequent e-mail, and advised to "keep up the great job."

Engineering Support Division Manager Jimmy Camp testified in a state personnel hearing that Franks had voiced his concerns about Dominguez and his alleged pressure to use the two companies.

A trial date has been set for May.

Ashley Meeks can be reached at (575) 541-5462.